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BORDERS ARE GALAXIES: INTERPRETING CONTESTATIONS OVER LOCAL ADMINISTRATIVE BOUNDARIES IN SOUTH SUDAN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2016

Zoe Cormack
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Abstract

This article explores conflicts over local administrative boundaries in South Sudan and what these reveal about relationships between pastoralist communities and the state. Drawing on research in the Gogrial region of South Sudan, it argues that conflicts over local boundaries are rooted in the existence of different border paradigms and in subsequent attempts to resolve, sometimes violently, competing moral claims on the landscape. It draws a contrast between a Dinka concept of the border as a point that is owned and the state's concept of the border as a neutral dividing line. These concepts are based on different cultural logics, but there has been a century of interpenetration as well as conflict between them. The state has tried to lay its lines over Dinka points and local people have sought to tap the power of the state by claiming authority at administrative boundaries. These complex processes of interpenetration show how rural populations negotiate with violent state power: both in the past and in the process of forming the new state of South Sudan. They also reveal how some pastoralist populations have played an active role in shaping the geography of the state.

Résumé

Cet article explore des conflits portant sur des frontières administratives locales au Sud-Soudan et ce qu’ils révèlent des relations entre les communautés pastorales et l’État. S’appuyant sur des recherches menées dans la région de Gogrial au Sud-Soudan, il soutient que les conflits portant sur les frontières locales trouvent leurs racines dans l’existence de différents paradigmes de frontières et les tentatives suivantes de résoudre, parfois violemment, les revendications morales concurrentes pour le paysage. Il établit un contraste entre un concept dinka de la frontière en tant que point appartenant à quelqu’un, et le concept de la frontière selon l’État en tant que ligne de démarcation neutre. Ces concepts reposent sur des logiques culturelles différentes, mais ils sont marqués par un siècle d’interpénétration et de conflit. L’État a tenté de poser ses lignes sur les points dinka, et la population locale a cherché à exploiter le pouvoir de l’État en revendiquant une autorité aux frontières administratives. Ces processus complexes d’interpénétration montrent comment les populations rurales négocient avec un pouvoir étatique violent : tant par le passé que dans le mécanisme de formation du nouvel État du Sud-Soudan. Ils révèlent également la manière dont certaines populations pastorales ont joué un rôle actif dans le modelage de la géographie de l’État.

Type
Contesting Space and Selfhood
Information
Africa , Volume 86 , Issue 3 , August 2016 , pp. 504 - 527
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2016 

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